Story of An Apprentice
by Yami No Joou
Summary: How did Watanuki meet Yuuko? In this new one-shot fanfiction, take on the point of view of Watanuki, and see how he had come to be an apprentice for our amazing Yuuko!


Whenever I think of Yuuko now, she strikes me as quite peculiar. Being her apprentice for about three years now (counting tomorrow), it is surprising how I am still amazed by her everyday. The aura around her barely changed in the past years, yet every time I am around her, I sense different kind of feeling.

Yuuko was a very powerful and mysterious enchantress back in her time. Now people refer to her as a witch. As absurd as it seems (witch is a heavy word to refer to someone), she had told me many times that she was not bothered by it at all. In fact, I thought that she was a witch, too, when I first met her. Our encounter back then was no pleasant story, but I would like to recall it back into this memoir of mine.

People have told me in the spring of my freshman year in college, that there was a witch who lived by the abandoned construction site behind the Yokohama city apartment complex. The apartments climbed so high up that they had blocked out all the sunlight coming down to the lot behind the buildings. The buildings were all at least 180 meters high (no wonder the construction site was abandoned), and the poor lives of the homeless people wander around beneath the glory of the big city. I was (un)lucky enough to be born as a Ningen, who possess no magical abilities at all since birth. I am just a normal sixteen-year-old boy, living a normal, mundane life amidst of all the magic that surrounds me. Of all people, Mahous live the longest. Some even lived till they are two-hundred. They are the ones who are born with supernatural abilities, and live a completely different lifestyle compared to mundanes like me.

They say that Yuuko is a hundred-or-so-year-old witch who lived on the bare-abandoned site. But ordinary people rarely see her. She would make her house appear once in awhile, and then would go missing for years with no contact with the outside world. Only those who truly seek something from her will see her. And she will not appear to you if you are looking for wealth and fame, as many people have tried to look for her but none had succeeded. They say that Yuuko is a great - and one of the best - fortune teller that you will ever get to meet in life, and nothing she said had gone false. Few had met her, and not many of them are alive today. As time passes, people start to forget about her. But every five or six months or so, people see her and the house appearing now and then.

But let us talk about the first time I met Yuuko. It was a June evening, just when the term had ended. Now that I recall it, I do not know whether it was "Fate", or it was just a coincidence that brought me to her house. The house was a traditional Japanese-styled home, with wooden pillars and sliding doors and a decent garden with bonsai trees in front. When I first saw the house, I did not know it was Yuuko's place. There was a little girl who ran out of the house and invited me inside. She said that Yuuko was expecting me.

Yuuko sat there in her house, smoking a _kiseru_ pipe (that explains all the smell when I first stepped in), on a chair with distinct patterns that were carved into the wood. She greeted me, and told me to make myself comfortable. At first, I had no idea why I was brought into the house, but I was impressed with it and the owner herself.

Yuuko wore a long, black, silky hairstyle that spans down to the bottom of her knees, and had dark crimson eyes that will penetrate you the first time you look into her eyes. Despite being a hundred-or-so years old, she had the look of a woman in her thirties. She was wearing a long, black dress that covered her slim, pale body (she was about six feet tall) and had on her a smile as if she knew exactly why I was here, in this place.

"I believe it's the first time we meet, Watanuki-kun." said she. How she knew my name, I would not be surprised. She was an enchantress for a reason.

"Why am I here?" I asked her. To meet Yuuko at a time like this is unusual. I myself have no desire at the time, and to meet her, you have to be having a deep desire within you.

Yuuko raised her hand and handed me a golden coin token. It was carved in ancient words, and it felt heavy for its size. I suspected that it was part copper and part gold. As confused as I was, she continued.

"Take this, as you will need it in the future." she handed it to me. "I know it sounds strange at this time, but eventually, you'll know the meaning of this coin."

"Why did you appear to me? I don't want anything from you, Yuuko." I told her. She smiled, and replied.

"Oh but you will, 're the first visitor that I've had for years. I see people all the time, but it had been a while since I've greeted an outsider."

She waved to the little girl, apparently living under the same house, and told her to go make tea. We talked through the evening and somehow now that I think about it, I have told Yuuko everything about me to her. But about Yuuko herself, where she was from, who her family was...I do not know. It was as if Yuuko would disappear one day, and I would not have any trace or remembrance of her.

At the end of the strange encounter, Yuuko walked me out and she picked a vibrant, red spider lily from her garden and gave it to me.

"Watanuki-kun, I believe that you are a very special man, and I look forward to our next encounter." she smiled.

The atmosphere in her house was mysterious and eerie, but when I stepped outside of the boundary of the house, the feeling was gone. Yuuko and the little girl (her name was Kohane) waved goodbye to me, and the enchantress looked as if she knew exactly that we will meet again some time later in life.

I left the house, and when I looked back to wave goodbye one more time, the house was gone. It disappeared into thin air as if it never existed, and what is left now is just an empty construction site with no remnants. What I have in my hand was a spider lily and a golden token, and I walked home, wondering why she'd given these things to me.

Two days after our encounter, I heard news that my uncle had died in hospital. He suffered from a mental disability, and his soul was finally set free from his body. We liked to believe that he'd moved onto a better life, and that his mind can finally be at rest, apart from the agony of his physical body. During the funeral ceremony, I placed the golden token that Yuuko had given me into his casket (a golden token was a parting gift into the underworld which will protect the soul from encountering evil spirits that may stray its way). The red spider lily had not withered away since the day I met Yuuko, and so I put it on uncle's chest before the cremation ceremony.

How Yuuko knew that this was coming, I would not be surprised. But it was silly of me to not recognize that she was foreshadowing an event (the golden token and the spider lily were symbols of Death). For the following week, I was determined to go back to Yuuko. I kept coming to the abandoned site everyday, but she had not appeared to me once since our first encounter.

Three weeks later, just about when I was ready to give up on her, I saw the house once again on my way home from the market. The same old, traditional, eerie house. This time of year, spider lilies bloom brighter than ever, and she'd planted some other purple poppies that filled the yard. I helped myself inside, and saw her.

This time, Yuuko was wearing a vibrant, red _yukata_ that matched her eyes. She was smoking the same pipe, and this time I was able to inspect her house more closely. She had too many obscure ornaments that she'd put on display, one including a crystal ball on a podium that she'd carefully placed on a dark blue cushion. The candles around her were dimly lit, and she greeted me once more.

"Welcome back, Watanuki-kun. I see you have decided to come back." said she.

"You knew that my uncle was going to die. Why didn't you tell me?" I asked her. If I had known what she had told me, I would have spent more time with him. "I tried looking for you for the last few weeks. Why didn't you appear?"

"Be patient, my boy. I see that you have had the devotion to come back and find me. What's more...I know that you are here because you have some unanswered questions." said she. I was startled because it was true that something had happened to me the day my uncle died.

That night after the funeral, I saw my dead uncle on the street in front of my house. He was sane again, but I was afraid to talk to him. I see him everywhere since then, and sometimes I talked to him. He sounded much happier now, but none of my family members could see him when I had explained to them what happened. I was hoping to come back to Yuuko for answers, as I thought that I had gone insane.

Yuuko chuckled, and came closer to me. "Watanuki-kun, I wasn't lying when I said that you are a very special boy." she said. "You have abilities that other humans can't possess, and you are always out there looking for answers. The knowledge that you have is extraordinary, and you must protect it at no cost."

I was surprised when Yuuko told me that I have the ability to see the dead. I had never seen a spirit before in my life, but since my uncle, I started noticing a lot of things. I realized that I can sense the atmosphere around me, and I could tell whether a person was a spirit or a being. Even Kohane was a spirit, and I saw her the first time I was here. A month later I came back to Yuuko, and told her that I wanted to be her apprentice. I wanted her to teach me what she knew about the other world that exists within this current one I am living in. Yuuko looked satisfied, and she said,

"I knew you'd come around. I was expecting you."

Later that time, I asked her the reason why she appeared to me the first time we met. It turned out that she knew that I had the power in me, and wanted to make me her apprentice. She knew what was going to happen, and I was just a character in her plot, fulfilling every scene of the story she had in mind. When I asked her, "Did you just pick me out of all the people that had special abilities in this world to meet you and be your apprentice?" she replied,

"No, Watanuki-kun. There is no such thing as a coincidence in this world. There is only the _inevitable._ "

And that became our motto every day that I work for her. She said that there was a certain _reason_ that I was chosen, but since then, she had never told me why. I live full time at her house, then, since my family lives in Osaka, and I came to Yokohama alone for college. Some time now and then, there would be a client that came looking for Yuuko with some desire they had in their hearts. Being with her for almost three years, I started noticing the aura around people. Some clients that we had had burning desires within them, some not as much, and some had an evil aura that surrounded them.

Yuuko never works for free, and there was always a price that came with every request that she had fulfilled for her clients. The price to pay, obviously was never cheap. She never accepts cash, but belongings instead. What they had to pay was an object that was most endearing to them. Yuuko had said that treasured objects usually store hidden energy that no one can imagine. Some people had refused to accept her offer, and some had given up their most precious item in exchange for their wish to be fulfilled. Wandering around Yuuko's house, I had sensed auras coming out from the many ornaments she had collected throughout her life. They filled her house with spirits, and one object, particularly, had caught my attention since the day I started working for her.

Now I would like to tell the story of a man whose object had belonged to him. This story had forever been ingrained in my mind every time I thought of it. He was not the best client that we had ever had, but to me, his story a very special case. Until this day, what was left of his object...is a forlorn feeling.

The client was a middle aged-man named Oe. He had come to us on a mid-September, rainy evening. Yuuko had told me to cleanup the living room, since she was expecting a guest that day. She told Kohane to go open the door, and the man greeted us when he came inside. He was a man with a short stature, and wore a sad, melancholic face. From the wrinkles on his face, it was easy to tell that he was stressed and was impacted by something heavily. But I sensed an evil aura coming out from him, despite the sad looks on his face. Yuuko invited him to sit down, and I brought some tea.

"What brings you here, Oe-san?" she asked. The man sighed heavily, and replied,

"I want something from you and I hoped that you can fulfill it." he avoided looking into her eyes, as if feeling guilty of something.

"Oe-san, you must know that there is always a price that comes with every request." she told him. "Any help that you want from me, I am willing to do it. But are you willing to give your most precious belonging away?"

Oe-san looked troubled, and hesitated for a long while. In the end he gave in, and gave Yuuko a black pen that had engravings on the side of it.

"I am a writer, and this is the one precious pen that I always have with me. This pen is a family heirloom that was passed down by generations before me, and my father had entrusted me with it when he died." Oe-san explained. Truly, this man was desperate for something. Yuuko accepted the offer, and prayed continue with the story.

"I would like you to kill my son." said he. I was shocked at first, when the evil aura around him had explained everything about his intentions. Later, it was revealed that he had a mentally disabled son, and he and his wife were tired of taking care of him, and wanted to set him free. His son was locked away in a psych ward, and had harmed many doctors and nurses who took care of him. Being a burden to the couple, he had requested Yuuko to make his son die, in the hope that it would set the boy's spirit free from his physical body.

Yuuko did not appear to be surprised (in fact, she had never been surprised at anything), and she asked again if this was what he truly wanted her to do.

"Oe-san, you know too well that you could have killed your son yourself without my help." she said. "But you chose not to, and this showed me that you could not face the reality yourself and could not bring yourself to kill your beloved son. I am here to accept your offer. But know that you will carry with you for the rest of your life shame, and cowardliness. Of course I understand the struggle you are going through, and it is understandable to want your son to be free. Do you wish to proceed?" she asked him one last time.

Oe -san did not hesitate anymore. He had made up his mind, and went along with the request. Yuuko accepted the black pen, and gave him a golden token. It was the same token that she had given me the first time that I met her. Only this time, I knew what it meant. When she walked him out the door, she also picked up a red spider lily and gave it to him. The man bowed down one last time, and left. From that day on, it was inferred, that he had gotten what he wanted. He never returned afterwards. To see Yuuko fulfilling a dark desire like that, I was really bothered by it for a while.

"If you knew he wanted his son to die, why did you appear to him anyway?" I asked. Yuuko does not seem like the type who would help others to grant a death wish. She looked at me and explained.

"There are always two forces in this world. Good, and evil. Without good, there is no evil. And without evil, there is no good. There always has to be a balance between the two. My job, is to make sure none of the good or evil exceeds the other. Watanuki-kun, do you know what will happen when either one overcomes the other?" she asked me.

"No." I replied.

"Why do you think there is never going to be a perfect utopia in this world?" she asked. "It is what everyone wanted, no?

When we create a perfect utopian society, we are putting ourselves in the risk of ignorance and complacency. If everyone wants to create a set of codes that will ensure the best for their society, doesn't it mean that anyone who fails to comply those rules will be put to punishment? And when that happens, would it mean that everyone has to be molded in a certain way that will ensure them their fate, and that they will not have the slightest chance to overthrow the government?

There is always someone who will not fit within that society, and what do you do with him? Do you kill him, or do you restrain him, so that he will not have the chance to corrupt the ideals of that world? In the action of doing so, you are automatically creating evil. If the government forbids everyone to do anything that might harm it, by preventing certain knowledge to be taught, they are creating ignorance in that world. People want to stay the same, therefore they choose complacency. People don't dare to change, because they will be punished in that ideal world.

Therefore, Watanuki-kun, my job is to make a balance between the two. I don't just work for good causes. If the seal is broken, great destruction can happen in this world. But because good and evil come in pair, we are able to create life within it. I don't appear to people who are looking for wealth and fame, because those are the most idiotic ways to live your life. I am not wasting my power on those who blindly follow dreams that they can't create for themselves and had to have my aid in it."

When Yuuko was finished explaining, I was able to understand her more than I had before. Why she was a very powerful enchantress, I understand now. Being with her made me realize what I truly want in life: I want to find out who I am in this world. I asked her if I can keep Oe-san's pen inside my room in her house, and she allowed me to. It reminds me of the evil in this world that coexist within my life.

Sometimes Yuuko would disappear from her own house for months, and then she would come back. No one knows why she left, and then she reappeared one day so suddenly that I forgot she was even gone for all this time. Kohane said that there are other powerful figures in the magical world that she had gone to visit, but no one knows for sure what she is up to.

There are so many things that I have got to figure out about who Yuuko really was, and she had always been the most mysterious figure that I have ever encountered in my life. I was happy that I was able to become her apprentice, though.

THE END


End file.
